Urban agriculture, which encompasses growing food on residential land, community and
school gardens, rooftop gardens and inner city farms and any other food growing that occurs within
a city, is an increasingly popular activity in the City of Vancouver. Urban agriculture has many
environmental and social benefits and this is recognized in recent publications by municipal
governments of the region. The focus of this project was to investigate how land is partitioned on
residential blocks, how much residential land is being used to grow food, and if there is space and
willingness to increase food growing on residential blocks. We also investigated whether residents
would be willing to share their yard space if they have it. To answer these questions, we analyzed
aerial photos of one block randomly selected from each of Vancouver’s twenty-two neighbourhoods
and administered a survey to the residents of these neighbourhoods. We grouped the twenty-two
neighbourhoods of our analysis into four categories based on their dwelling density.
Some important findings were that 77% of Vancouver residents believe it is important to eat
food that is grown locally, 52% of Vancouver residents grow some food for some period of the year.
There is a significant correlation between individual residents’ responses relating to the importance
of eating local food and whether they grow food. We also found that between 8-12% of the yard
area of residential blocks is currently being used to grow food, which leaves space for food growing
to increase. Our survey data indicates that there is not only available space, but also willingness on
behalf of residents for food growing to increase. The data also indicates that given various
conditions, at a minimum 26% of residents would be willing to share their yard space for others to
grow food on. Based on the findings from our analysis of aerial photos and from our survey, we
make the following recommendations:
• Increase education on the benefits of growing food and how to tend a food garden in
Vancouver.
• Encourage and support Vancouver residents to grow food on residential spaces.
• Support the existing supply of local food in its many forms and preserve existing
agricultural land.
• Provide more long lasting spaces for growing food for recreational and commercial
purposes.
• Use data on current high density areas as predictors for the needs of low and medium
density areas in the future.
Green space on residential blocks is an inventory of land that currently contributes to urban
agriculture in the City of Vancouver. With appropriate action on behalf of residents and local
governments, this inventory could be used to increase urban agriculture, which has the potential to
benefit the City and its residents in various ways.